Decreased expression of hsa_circ_0003570 in hepatocellular carcinoma and its clinical significance

Background Circular RNAs (circRNAs) constitute a class of non‐coding RNAs recently discovered to be widespread and abundant in mammalian cells. However, the expression features of most of circRNAs in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are unraveled. In this study, we focused on hsa_circ_0003570, which was found to be down‐regulated in HCC tissues in our previous microarray screening. Methods The hsa_circ_0003570 levels in HCC cell lines, HepG2, SMMC‐7721, MHCC97L, MHCC97H, and HCCLM3, and human normal hepatic cell line L02 were detected by quantitative reverse transcription‐polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR). Then, its levels in 107 paired HCC tissues and adjacent non‐tumor tissues, 60 liver biopsy samples from patients with chronic liver diseases were detected by qRT‐PCR. The receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) was used to evaluate the diagnostic value of hsa_circ_0003570 for HCC. Results Hsa_circ_0003570 was not only first found down‐regulated in HCC cell lines (P